That Blind Woman, Julie Woods, has searched far and locally to collect 20 disability-related quotations, from many great thinkers on the subject ... including her good self!

Add your favourite disability-related quote in the Comments & Reactions section below, or at our Share a Story page, and we will forward it on to Julie.

 

1. “Access to communication, in its widest sense, is access to knowledge. We must not be pitied, nor reminded we are vulnerable. We must be treated as equals and communication is the way we can bring this about.”

Louis Braille

2. "Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.”

Stevie Wonder

3. “My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn’t accessible.”

Stella Young

4. “There is no greater disability in society than the inability to see a person as more.”

Robert Hensel

5. “The only thing I can’t do, is see.”

Simon Fogarty

6. “My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.”

Stephen Hawking

7. “I've given up living down to other's expectations - it's too much hard work.”

George Kerr

8. “Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly. But the bumble bee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway!”

Mary Kay Ash

9. “No disability or dictionary out there is capable of clearly defining who we are as a person.”

Robert Hensel

10. “My wheelchair is not my disability, it's people's attitude towards it.”

John Marrable

11. “I have had this desire my whole life to prove people wrong, to show them I could do things they didn’t think I could do.”

David Paterson

12. “It is never too late to give up your prejudices.”

Henry Thoreau

13. “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.”

Helen Keller

14. “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

Christopher Reeve

15. “The more I surrounded myself with blind people the more I knew of possibilities. The more I surrounded myself with sighted people the more I knew of my limits. Or was it their limits?”

Julie Woods

16. “Being disabled should not mean being disqualified from having access to every aspect of life.”

Emma Thompson

17. “If you celebrate your differentness, the world will too.”

Victoria Moran

18. “Disability is natural. We must stop believing that disabilities keep a person from doing something, because that’s not true.”

Benjamin Snow

19. “If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”

Shirley Chisholm

20. “My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with.”

Stephen Hawking

 

Add your favourite disability-related quote in the Comments & Reactions section below, or at our Share a Story page, and we will forward it on to Julie.

This is my access story, it is one of many. I'm sharing it because I want a law that puts accessibility at the heart of an inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand.

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